Glenn yawned, letting his head wobble as the wagon he was sitting in rolled over sharp rocks. Sahro was in front of him, rubbing his stump thoughtfully. Josh took the opportunity to rest while Javier did... his Javier thing. Most of the time, he stared at Glenn without blinking.
Monsieur Maron and company were on their way back to King's Rise, their business in Palancar finally done. There was no guarantee Glenn would ever come back to the accursed village, and he was pretty sure he wouldn't miss the place.
"When do we arrive?"
"I. Don't. Know. Stop asking me."
"How many hours has it been since we left? It'll be dark soon, wouldn't it be a better idea to stop and camp?"
"No, we'll be there soon."
"Ah, so you do know when we'll get there!"
"..."
Glenn grimaced as he turned away from Lefeivre, the counter-master he'd been harassing. The man seemed recalcitrant in the face of his communication efforts, refusing to answer most of the young man's questions. Fortunately, it was easy enough to trick him into answering Glenn's questions every time.
"...Do we at least have the right to know where we're headed?" Sahro asked sourly. He didn't seem too pleased with being forced to go on another request with the unlucky merchant. Glenn nodded, stretching his legs that had grown sore during the travel.
"Maron mentioned something about an abandoned quarry," He rubbed his chin, frowning, "...Are we going to get forced into hard labor again?"
Lefeivre flinched but didn't say anything. Glenn and Sahro traded a stare and sighed at the same time. Only Javier didn't react, apparently too busy imprinting Glenn's face in his eyes.
'You'd believe he would get tired of it, but no, not at all,' Diamanes remarked curiously. The entity smacked its lips in Glenn's mind, before heaving sadly.
'What's up with you?'
'Nothing, it's just depressing to lose access once again to my strength,' Diamanes complained. Glenn pressed his lips together and raised an eyebrow.
'...Again? Have you already lost your strength before? When?' The young man sharply noticed. Diamanes sneered.
'What? Do you think I put myself into that shitty, fleshy crystal?' He retorted with irritation. Glenn nodded slightly, lost in thoughts. He felt Diamanes' presence fade slightly from inside his mind, the entity unwilling to pursue the subject. That did raise the question as to why people would lock Diamanes away in that strange crystal/prison. Besides the fact that he was a creepy hand with an eldritch feeling to it, he didn't seem too threatening or evil. Sure, he had some incredible powers, like eating up magic and spitting it back out as much as he wanted, but Diamanes didn't strike him as the kind of being that couldn't be reasoned with.
'Whatever, that'll have to wait for now. Diamanes is a mystery that I'm sure will unravel itself in time. Heh, it's not like he's going anywhere,' Glenn's lips curved upwardly. A sharp whistle suddenly rang in his ears, as it did in everyone's. He hurriedly jumped out of the cart, looking in the direction of the sound. Glenn's transport was at the head of the convoy, to be used as the spearhead in case they met any problems. Sadly, the whistle wasn't coming from the front, but from the back.
"...ack!" A man was running with all his strength panted and tried to scream something, only for his words to come out unintelligible. Glenn's eyes squinted. The man looked back with a scared look on his face, heaving as he had just run a marathon. He pointed a trembling finger behind him, and Glenn groaned in annoyance.
"I'll head there. Sahro?"
"...No worries, I'll stand here just in case." The Black Heir pushed himself out of the cart lazily, his remaining hand on the pommel of his cherished curved sword. Josh woke up, blinking confusedly, while Javier jumped off the cart and calmly walked next to Glenn.
"..." The pale hunter remained silent as he waited for the young man to take the lead.
"...Thanks for your help, Javier. Let's get going," said Glenn with a smile, before darting off in the direction the terrified man came from. The sharp whistle kept on ringing on the road, alerting everyone of the danger. Glenn winced when a foul smell of rotten eggs and putrefied flesh didn't stop for a second. He could recognize that smell anywhere, and each time it only brought blood and pain.
'Hopefully, it isn't another machination from the Thorn's Church or some kind of flesh monster from another cursed god. I'm getting tired of those,' Glenn mentally grumbled, a Mana longsword appearing in his right hand in a flash of mystical blue light.
"Argh! Push them off! Push them off!" One of the mercenaries who had survived Palancar's purge was shouting to his comrades. Groans and gargles came from whatever they were fighting. Glenn and Javier finally joined them, to find a herd of rotting corpses running around with weapons planted in them, their limbs hanging with strips of meat and their head half-opened, yellow pus coming out of their wounds.
"Zombies? Huh?" Glenn couldn't help but blurt out, almost happily surprised. This was so...basic, compared to everything he fought up until now. Javier didn't waste a second as he took his bow off his shoulder and shot a few moving cadavers in the head. The zombies fell back without putting much resistance, their weakness almost laughable in the young man's eyes.
"This...This almost looks fun!" He exclaimed, his eyes shining. He shot out a few Magic Bullets just to try, only to witness in amazement the zombies' heads exploding like pumpkins.
'...So you did lose your mind,' Diamanes groaned with a barely faked shred of annoyance. Glenn shook his head.
'What's wrong with trying to make work fun, hmm? Since I'm forced to protect the other madman, let me at least get some pleasure out of it!'
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
A second later, he jumped alongside the mercenaries, sweeping his longsword out and cutting through the zombies as if they were butter. The corpses fell on the ground, replaced by more coming from the forest. The swarm seemed unending, but that dreadful thought did nothing to deter Glenn from...well, having fun.
"HAHAHA!!!" The young man laughed madly as he finally let go of the pent-up pressure on his shoulders. This was nothing but a fun game for him, popping up one zombie head after the other.
A few dozen corpses down later, the young man jumped back behind the mercenaries holding the line and looked at the situation. There was something that didn't sit too well with him, and now that he had a better view of the battlefield, he knew exactly what. The zombies were all going for only one place, and that was Maron's luxurious carriage, which was situated at the exact center of the caravan.
They were completely uninterested in the rest of the company, which, from a positive point, meant they only needed to defend one place. On another hand, that meant these zombies weren't moving motivated by hunger, but rather for some hidden objective.
'That objective probably is Maron, but I'm pretty sure the fucker won't let me take him out of the safety of his carriage and test my theory. Well, it's getting a little tiring, so let's get rid of them.'
Glenn mustered the energy for a Blackhole, his eyes trying to pierce the thick edge of the forest. If these zombies were moving with Maron in mind, that meant someone was probably controlling them. He was no expert in undead but he would rather expect them to act erratically without much care for anyone in particular, as long as it was living.
"Anyway, time to clear out every ants out of the way," He muttered with a smile. Without much effort, he shot the Blackhole, suddenly wincing when he felt his Mana emptying to 9/10th of its reserves.
'Shit, I still have this ridiculously low Mana pool... Wait, should I just Meditate and gather my Mana right now?' A ridiculous thought traversed Glenn's mind as the Blackhole swallowed hundreds of zombies, only growing bigger and bigger as it kept on eating.
In the meanwhile, Glenn couldn't help but ponder. Could the issue of not having much Mana be resolved just by having a high regeneration rate? The best way he knew to gather his Mana back was sleeping and Meditating, the second method being slightly better than the first one.
"Hey," He nudged the blood-covered shoulder of one of the mercenaries. The man didn't possess any Aura and was completely mana-less, but he wielded his sword bravely even though he was completely terrified by the walking dead. He looked courageous enough in Glenn's eyes.
"Huh? Yes?" The mercenary was petrified, still in awe of the domineering power shown in the demon's magic, who was previously fighting with a magic blade.
"What's your name?"
"Re...Reed!" The mercenary saluted, startling Glenn. The young man shook his head, before sitting on the ground with his legs crossed.
"Alright, Reed. I don't think we've met during Palancar's mess, but I'm Glenn. If there are too many of them or something worse is coming, slap me, alright?" Glenn asked, before taking a deep breath and preparing to enter Meditation. Without even giving the mercenary the chance to refuse, he plunged into his Mana Heart and let it calmly fill back up.
Reed turned at the now destroyed wave of zombies, then back at Glenn. He clenched his sword and teeth and held a defensive stance, his eyes trying to find any threat that might approach the resting Magi. The mercenary was no fool. If Fixer Glenn wanted him to guard him while he did whatever he was doing, it was for a good reason.
And it couldn't hurt to be in the good graces of someone so powerful, after all. A few of the surviving zombies wandered close to him, but other mercenaries took care of them mercilessly. Now that their numbers had been thinned down, it was much easier to get rid of them. The undead main strength were their numbers and their ability to not feel pain. You take the numbers away, and they're just weak creatures that can be killed with any well-aimed attack.
Even though the mercenary company Reed was from wasn't composed of Aura-Practitioners or Mage, they were still capable soldiers who could defend themselves.
"We...We pushed them off!" One of the mercenaries roared as he crushed a zombie skull under his boot. Others joined him, raising their swords or spears to the sky. Reed clenched his teeth looked back at the terrifying Fixer, and remained wary of the edge of the forest. His instinct was screaming at him that it wasn't over.
The sound of the ground rumbling quickly shut the happy mercenaries, putting them back on their guards. Groans and death rattles soon came out of the forest, and zombies shot out from it, much faster and more aggressive than the previous ones. Thankfully, these stronger specimens weren't present in big numbers, but each of them put the mercenaries at risk. Reed clenched his sword and kicked away an approaching undead, plunging his sword into its eye sockets. A gray substance came out of the skull, sickeningly sticking to the blade.
The mercenary shook it off and pushed off another zombie. He kicked it in the knee, before smashing its rotten head with the back of his armored gauntlet. He took a step back a deep breath and raised his sword again. One of the particularly aggressive undead suddenly charged while rattling madly, jumping over its less-proactive comrades.
Reed prepared to block him, but a dark arrow flew through the air and pierced the creature, making it explode in a cloud of rotten blood. Reed covered his eyes as strips of flesh and bits of bones fell on his face. He wiped it off and looked at the pale archer standing on top of the carriage, shooting without stopping powerful arrows.
'It seems like the other Fixer is taking care of the stronger ones. We can hold on, as long as it stops soon. This isn't hard, just tiring,' Reed understood, his confidence boosted. He roared and cut another undead in two, his blood boiling.
"Come, you wretches! Taste my fist!"
In the meanwhile, Glenn was taking a nice stroll around his Mana Heart, wondering if there was any way to accelerate the process of gathering his Mana back.
"I mean, the efficiency just sucks. I know it's supposed to be automatic or something, but can't I be a little more proactive?" He complained, trying to gauge the speed of the Mana gathering.
He couldn't visually tell how fast it went, just feel it. It was like filling a water bottle, but he could only feel it become heavier, not witness it getting filled.
"Isn't there a way to see where the Mana comes from...? Maybe I can manually pull it in to make it faster?" Glenn tried to search through the space of his Mana Heart, but he was unable to find the spot the Mana was entering from. He frowned, sitting in nothing.
"...This is stupid. Isn't there an op breathing technique of Heaven and Earth to get my Mana back? Why didn't Onnea give me that instead of a shitty Circle that wouldn't even last?" He kept on complaining aloud, his words echoing in his Mana Heart's emptiness. The two runic Circles spun ever so slowly, shining weakly as Glenn Mana remained quite low.
The young man stared at the Circle, suddenly lost in thought.
"...Wait a second. Gather, process, and amplify...The speed of the Circles decreases depending on how much Mana I have..."
Glenn floated next to the Circle, reaching to it with his hand. He still couldn't feel the headache that was previously stopping him from understanding the three core concepts: gather, process, and amplify.
"...Can I accelerate the Circles and force them to gather Mana faster...?" The young man pondered, before mentally ordering the Circles to run faster. At first, nothing happened whatsoever, but he soon encountered resistance. It felt like he was trying to force open a rusty mechanism that had stuck in place for ages, creaking as he put his will into it.
Slowly but surely, the two runic rings began accelerating, but it took Glenn's entire concentration. It wasn't just waiting, he had to actively focus on ordering the Circles to work. Sweat began pearling on his forehead in the real world, falling on the ground silently in the middle of the fight.
For the first time using this accelerated method, it took exactly six minutes and thirty-seven seconds to gather every single drop of Mana he had. His heart was racing madly as if it was going to jump out of his chest, but Glenn couldn't care less about it.
Because he found it.
The way to get his Third Circle back.